


Sugar, Butter, Beifong

by toastweasel



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, coffee shop AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:14:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26518048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toastweasel/pseuds/toastweasel
Summary: I present to y'all: Hopeless Shippy Dumbasses Korra and Bolin notice their respective bosses making eyes at each other and embark on Madcap Shenanigans in order to get them together. The rest of the Krew gets dragged in to help, as do half of the other business owners on the street.It takes a village to get one emotionally constipated tea shop owner and a freewheeling hippie yoga instructor together, but by god, the Republic City Main Street Coalition is going to try.[Aka, the Modern Coffee Shop AU that nobody asked for.]
Relationships: Korra/Asami Sato, Lin Beifong/Kya II
Comments: 44
Kudos: 162





	Sugar, Butter, Beifong

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cassiopeiasara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassiopeiasara/gifts).



> Well this happened. No idea how often I'm going to update it, because Brave Soldier Girl is still happening, but when the angst gets too much I write chapters of this. Hope you like it! :) These chapters will generally be on the shorter side, too.
> 
> Many, many thanks to cassiopeiasara for brainstorming all of the madcap shenanigans for this late into the night.
> 
> Title from Waitress, because I couldn't resist.

“Hi, I’m looking for the proprietor?”

The words prick Lin’s attention from the back office. She doesn’t recognize the voice, so it isn’t one of their regulars. She grits her teeth and prepares herself for either an angry customer or someone from the city. Maybe, if she’s lucky, it’s just an intern from the Main Street Coalition.

“Give me a second,” she hears Bolin say, and then a second later his head sticks through the back and shouts, “Liiiiii—”

“I have ears,” she grunts, cutting him short. He grins sheepishly and pulls back into the main room. She stands from her computer and steps out into the café proper, and sets eyes on one of the most beautiful women she has ever seen.

The woman standing before her is certainly _not_ an intern from the Main Street Coalition, and the way she is smiling is too kind for an angry customer. Also, city officials don’t usually wear blue tie-dyed leggings and long, dangling earrings that brush the top of the collarbone.

Lin can’t place this woman, who honestly throws her a little bit for the loop, so Lin settles for a gruff, “Can I help you?”

“Are you the owner?” the woman asks, turning to face her.

She nods and holds out a hand. “I’m Lin Beifong.”

“Kya, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” The woman has impossibly soft hands, with calluses in interesting places. “I just wanted to come say hi. I’m opening a yoga studio down the block so I thought I’d come meet the neighbors.”

Ah. That would explain the calluses.

“A pleasure,” Lin replies stiffly, and pulls her business card out of her inside blazer pocket to hand it over. “Welcome to Beifong Brews.”

“I’ve been to your Northeast location,” Kya says happily as she takes the card and tucks it under the exposed strap of her bra. “I love their teas.”

Lin can barely withhold a grimace. Of course this woman has been to Su’s location. She looks the type, with her overall artsy, hippie-vibe. Not to mention she’s opening a _yoga studio_. The yoga types are definitely the kind to which her sister caters. What’s next, an art gallery?

“My cards are back at the shop,” Kya continues apologetically, “but you’re welcome to come by anytime. Although I did want to ask you about the Main Street Coalition. Is it—?”

The bells tinkle over the door. “Lin!”

Speak of the devil and she shall appear, dressed for the part in a sleeveless green blouse and black mom jeans. Really, what was it with people shouting her name today?

“I’m busy, Su,” Lin tells her deadpan, hoping to cut any of her sister’s shenanigans off at the pass.

“Have you seen my daughter?” Su demands, arms crossing over her chest the second she arrived in front of her. “I know you’ve been harboring her!”

Lin might have been letting her niece stay at her apartment while things blew over from a fight with her mother, but she certainly wasn’t going to tell her sister that. “I haven’t seen Opal.”

“Have you, or are you just saying that?”

Lin rolls her eyes. Lin can see out of the corner of her eye Bolin and Asami very clearly trying not to be nosy and failing miserably. 

Kya, from where she was standing, hides a grimace at the obviously oncoming bout of sibling rivalry. “Well, don’t let me keep you. I’ll just be—”

“Don’t,” Lin says quickly, and levels her sister with a glare. “Su was just leaving.”

“Oh, don’t mind me,” Su says playfully, “but if you really haven’t seen Opal, I’m sure you won’t mind if I drop by your apartment? I left my coat the other night and I’d like to have it back.”

Lin sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration.

Lin thus annoyed, Su turns to Kya and brightly sticks out a hand before the yoga instructor can make her escape. “Suyin Beifong.”

Kya’s eyebrow arches as she takes her hand. “Beifong?”

“I’m the other Beifong,” Su says with a laugh. “Lin is my sister.”

“Half-sister,” Lin growls fondly, falling back into their usual routine of give and take. Opal, she thinks, will be safe if Lin can distract Su with Kya. “Su, this is Kya. She’s opening a yoga studio down the street. She says she likes your tea.”

Su brightens at the compliment and Lin stops phrasing the warning text to her niece in the back of her head.

“Oh, you do? That’s wonderful. My husband—”

And she’s off. Opal’s safety for the night is secure. Su thus entangled, Lin turns her attention to the two behind the counter.

“Aren’t you supposed to be off-shift?” she growls at Bolin, who pulls an innocent Who Me? Face and sips foam off the top of something he definitely shouldn’t be drinking.

“Your brother’s going to kill you,” Asami says, and plucks the ceramic out of his fingers. “You know you shouldn’t be drinking caffeine.”

“What Mako doesn’t know doesn’t hurt him,” Bolin replies, going to snatch the cup back and missing. “I just live for the buzz.”

“You collapse on my shop floor and you’ll be living for a whole different kind of buzz,” Lin threatens idly, but there’s no real malice. Bolin is a good kid, no matter how many times he plugs his phone into the shop speakers to play show tunes. Despite this, she doesn’t want to deal with Mako when he finds out his brother has been going against doctor’s orders, even though it’s likely a cup of coffee wouldn’t do more than just rattle Bolin’s central nervous system around a little bit more than it already had been.

But she’s no doctor, and she doesn’t want Mako to explode in front of the customers. That would be bad for business.

“Pour it out, Miss Sato,” she tells Asami, who does it with glee.

Bolin sighs melodramatically and drapes himself across the pastry cabinet. “Cruel and unusual punishment!”

“Get out of my shop,” she tells him, her voice _almost_ (but not quite) fond, and Bolin saunters out of the shop with a wink after dramatically holding his pose for a four count.

She sighs as the bells tinkle behind him. _Actors._

Speaking of actors, she turns and finds her sister still deeply entrenched in conversation with Kya. She hears something about an opening party, with a tea and coffee order from Beifong Brews.

“I’m certain it wouldn’t be a problem at all,” Su is saying animatedly. “We could do that.”

Lin feels her hackles rising and steps back in. “Are you seriously poaching a catering order out from under me in my own store?”

“Of course not,” Su replies brightly, the picture of innocence. Like Lin hasn’t seen that face before. “Besides, with your pastry chef, you’re much better equipped to handle an opening party than we are.”

“That wouldn’t stop you,” Lin says evenly, then turns to Kya. “I would be happy to discuss a catering order with you. We have an order form online.”

“I’ll check it out,” Kya says evenly. “It’s good to have an option so close.”

“And Mako’s cheesecake is to die for,” Su promises. “If Lin ever gets rid of him, I’m snapping him up like that.”

She snaps she fingers, and Kya laughs.

Lin crosses her arms over her chest with a scowl. Like hell she would ever get rid of Mako, considering she is helping him pay for culinary school. “Not going to happen.”

“Oh I know, but I can dream.”

“Get your own pastry chef and stop trying to poach mine.”

Su laughs. She reaches into the pocket of her little purse and pulls out a silver and emerald business card holder. The embossed gold lettering of Su’s extravagant business card shone against the thick, dark green paper as she passes it to Kya. “Feel free to reach out any time if Lin can’t get you what you want.”

Kya smiles beatifically and accepts the card. “Thank you. I hope to see one or both of you at the studio. First session is on me.”

“Wonderful!” Su exclaims. Lin grunts; yoga has never really been her thing. 

“Well, I have to get going,” Su says, clapping her hands together, “but it was wonderful to meet you.”

“It was,” Kya says with a smile. “I have to get back to the studio, but it was nice to meet both of you.”

Lin nodded. “Likewise. Welcome to Republic City Main Street. We have a Coalition meeting on the first Thursday of every evening.”

Kya nods. “Tenzin was telling me. I’ll try to come.” She tucks Su’s business card underneath Lin’s in her bra strap. “Have a good afternoon and Lin—can’t wait to try the masala chai.”

Lin nods, internally running through her supplier list. She’d have to check and make sure she and Su used the same supplier.

Kya leaves with a small wave, the smell of incense and sea salt wafting behind her. 

“She seems nice,” her sister says brightly as soon as the door fade.

“Don’t start.”

Su rolls her eyes with a sigh, but nudges Lin playfully with her shoulder. “Well this has been fun, but I do actually have to get back. You really haven’t seen Opal?”

“No, Su. I haven’t.”

“Alright. I’ll see you Sunday for dinner,” Su says as she backs up for the door. She turns on her heel to push through the door, then stops with her hand on the push bar. “Oh! And Lin? I’m dropping by your apartment on my way home to pick up that coat.”

Lin rolls her eyes and dismisses her with a hand flip. Su smiles and the door bells tinkle merrily as the door shut behind her.

As soon as Su is out of view of the windows, Lin fishes her phone out of her pocket to call her niece.

**Author's Note:**

> If you like what you read, please leave a review :)


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